Micro-vaporizers heat and vaporize small amounts of liquids or soluble solids, such as nicotine containing liquids, fragrances, flavored liquids, chemical agents, biochemical agents, essences, glues, waxes, resins, and saps. Micro-vaporizers typically vaporize fluids at a rate of less than 100 milliliters per hour (ml/h). Micro-vaporizers are applied in products such as: electronic cigarettes, home fragrance dispensers, personal and home dispensers of bug repellent, and medical treatment dispensers for inhalers. Micro-vaporizers are often applied in consumer products used by retail consumers with little or no training or instruction in the use of the product. Micro-vaporizers should be safe for consumer use, easy to operate, reliable, deliver vapor quickly and consistently upon demand by a consumer, require little or no training to operate, be inexpensive to manufacture, and be rugged to withstand shocks from falls and usage by consumer.
A micro-vaporizer has a heating element powered by a battery. The heating element is in contact with the liquid or soluble solid to be vaporized. Conventional heating elements are commonly electric heating coils or Positive Temperature Coefficient (PTC) heating elements. Conventional heating element are commonly immersed in a fluid filled chamber or surrounded by fluid adsorbent material in the micro-vaporizer.
Micro-vaporizers rapidly and repeatedly deliver vapor on demand to a consumer. The consumer may activate heating element by sucking on the end of the micro-vaporizer, pressing a button or otherwise commanding the vaporizer to generate vapor. The need for rapid and repeated generation of vapor has caused conventional heating elements to be configured to consume large amounts of electrical power. To supply the needed power, conventional micro-vaporizers tend to have high charge density batteries, such as lithium batteries and rechargeable batteries. These batteries are relatively expensive, large and unfriendly to the environment when the micro-vaporizer is disposed of. There is a need to avoid expensive and large batteries but still have a micro-vaporizer that rapidly and repeatedly delivers vapor.